Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2013 18:17:10 GMT -7
Ordered:
10 Deleware laying hens (eggs: eat & hatch)
2 Deleware roosters
75 Cornish Cross chickens (butcher)
10 Muscovy ducks (breed & butcher)
6 Narragansett turkey (breed & butcher)
Building pen for a pair of feeder pigs that will arrive in early May, expect to butcher in the fall. Not sure what breed they are, but I am sure they will be pork!
Picked up the remainder of the woven wire for the sheep pens.
Talking with a breeder for acquiring 1 ram and 4 ewes this summer, price has been agreed on, just waiting for lamb crop to start hitting the ground...I will be breeding Barbados Blackbelly Sheep...for butcher lambs.
Placed an order for a male Anatolian Shepard Dog, will pick him up when the sheep come home, he will be about 4 months old when I get him, and will be getting a female next summer from the same breeders, only unrelated to the male. Both will be registered and I plan to breed them (limited).
My Black Angus heifer, Lucy is making a bag and getting ready to calve any time...first calf, I hope she does well with all this snow on the ground!! I will be selling this calf when it hits about 500# in the fall if it's a bull, I will give it to Jim in exchange for hay if it's a heifer.
Abby is due to calve in May, my Jersey heifer. She was bred to the Mini bull, Count. I will be butchering her calf when it is weaned. Good meat for the freezer.
My Miniature Irish Dexter bull, Count is filled out very well (weighting about 600#) and will be turned in with the new Mini Irish Dexter heifer, Patty, in a few months. Irish Dexters are a multipurpose breed, for meat, milk and labor. I plan to butcher any calf Patty produces. I may sell or butcher Count in the fall of 2014, as the man I got him from has offered me a replacement mini bull calf which will be weaned this fall and old enough to breed next year.
Pens and barns are ready to go up. As soon as the snow melts off, I will be putting up a permanent house and pen for the butcher chickens, IF anyone is interested, I will post a thread with pics of the process.
Garden seeds and supplies are ready for starting plants this weekend. Garden plans are going forward as planned.
Orders have been placed for more fruit trees, bushes, etc. The orchard is expanding.
Both rabbits are scheduled to be bred on March 9th. Currently I am down to 2 New Zealand White does and a NZ white buck, I am waiting to receive a California doe form a friend who just had a litter drop. I much prefer the NZW crossed with the Californias, due to the larger and faster growth of the offspring.
The guineas are old enough to sex, 5 will be turned loose for tick control as soon as the grass starts popping, 1 male and 2 female will be confined for breeding. The chicks will be raised for tick control, selling and butchering (they taste really good).
I will be selling the group of bantam chickens I have at a major swap meet the first Saturday of June, they just are not what I thought I wanted. I love the little buggers, but I need the larger eggs. I decided on Deleware chickens since the white feathers mean the birds dress out nicer, they are a dual purpose breed, lay very well and lay large brown eggs, They are good broody hens, they are gentle and tolerate extreme heat and cold both very well, and they are very hardy health wise. Pretty much everything I need...although they are not my favorite breed for looks, they will serve the purpose I need them for, since looks won't serve the purpose I want them for.
Cornish cross, of course, for butchering at 8 weeks old.
Narragansett Turkeys are rare, some I will keep for breeding, and a few will go in the freezer. I don't need super large birds, so the 10-15# carcass will serve me well.
The Muscovy ducks are large, produce many large eggs, are low in fat so not near as greasy as most ducks, the meat is a lot like sirloin steak and just as tasty, they go broody and can hatch up to 3 clutches per year. So, a trio will stay for breeding, the other 3 will be butchered. Color does not matter to me, but I made my order preference for white ones to make a better dressed carcass.
Talks are underway between Jim and landowners on 1 side of me to try and purchase an additional 7 acres of pasture/ trees adjoining my property, expanding my place from 10 to 17 acres. If this works, he then plans to talk to another land owner on the back side about a 10-15 acre patch of pasture/trees to expand slightly more on the back side and include a pond and creek on my property. Hoping to end up with approximately 30 acres total by the time I get out of school and start work full time as a nurse.
Pretty sure no one really is very worried about this, but since homesteading is a major method of surviving considering what's happening with the world, I figured I would post. If anyone has any questions...feel free to ask, I will do my best to answer.
10 Deleware laying hens (eggs: eat & hatch)
2 Deleware roosters
75 Cornish Cross chickens (butcher)
10 Muscovy ducks (breed & butcher)
6 Narragansett turkey (breed & butcher)
Building pen for a pair of feeder pigs that will arrive in early May, expect to butcher in the fall. Not sure what breed they are, but I am sure they will be pork!
Picked up the remainder of the woven wire for the sheep pens.
Talking with a breeder for acquiring 1 ram and 4 ewes this summer, price has been agreed on, just waiting for lamb crop to start hitting the ground...I will be breeding Barbados Blackbelly Sheep...for butcher lambs.
Placed an order for a male Anatolian Shepard Dog, will pick him up when the sheep come home, he will be about 4 months old when I get him, and will be getting a female next summer from the same breeders, only unrelated to the male. Both will be registered and I plan to breed them (limited).
My Black Angus heifer, Lucy is making a bag and getting ready to calve any time...first calf, I hope she does well with all this snow on the ground!! I will be selling this calf when it hits about 500# in the fall if it's a bull, I will give it to Jim in exchange for hay if it's a heifer.
Abby is due to calve in May, my Jersey heifer. She was bred to the Mini bull, Count. I will be butchering her calf when it is weaned. Good meat for the freezer.
My Miniature Irish Dexter bull, Count is filled out very well (weighting about 600#) and will be turned in with the new Mini Irish Dexter heifer, Patty, in a few months. Irish Dexters are a multipurpose breed, for meat, milk and labor. I plan to butcher any calf Patty produces. I may sell or butcher Count in the fall of 2014, as the man I got him from has offered me a replacement mini bull calf which will be weaned this fall and old enough to breed next year.
Pens and barns are ready to go up. As soon as the snow melts off, I will be putting up a permanent house and pen for the butcher chickens, IF anyone is interested, I will post a thread with pics of the process.
Garden seeds and supplies are ready for starting plants this weekend. Garden plans are going forward as planned.
Orders have been placed for more fruit trees, bushes, etc. The orchard is expanding.
Both rabbits are scheduled to be bred on March 9th. Currently I am down to 2 New Zealand White does and a NZ white buck, I am waiting to receive a California doe form a friend who just had a litter drop. I much prefer the NZW crossed with the Californias, due to the larger and faster growth of the offspring.
The guineas are old enough to sex, 5 will be turned loose for tick control as soon as the grass starts popping, 1 male and 2 female will be confined for breeding. The chicks will be raised for tick control, selling and butchering (they taste really good).
I will be selling the group of bantam chickens I have at a major swap meet the first Saturday of June, they just are not what I thought I wanted. I love the little buggers, but I need the larger eggs. I decided on Deleware chickens since the white feathers mean the birds dress out nicer, they are a dual purpose breed, lay very well and lay large brown eggs, They are good broody hens, they are gentle and tolerate extreme heat and cold both very well, and they are very hardy health wise. Pretty much everything I need...although they are not my favorite breed for looks, they will serve the purpose I need them for, since looks won't serve the purpose I want them for.
Cornish cross, of course, for butchering at 8 weeks old.
Narragansett Turkeys are rare, some I will keep for breeding, and a few will go in the freezer. I don't need super large birds, so the 10-15# carcass will serve me well.
The Muscovy ducks are large, produce many large eggs, are low in fat so not near as greasy as most ducks, the meat is a lot like sirloin steak and just as tasty, they go broody and can hatch up to 3 clutches per year. So, a trio will stay for breeding, the other 3 will be butchered. Color does not matter to me, but I made my order preference for white ones to make a better dressed carcass.
Talks are underway between Jim and landowners on 1 side of me to try and purchase an additional 7 acres of pasture/ trees adjoining my property, expanding my place from 10 to 17 acres. If this works, he then plans to talk to another land owner on the back side about a 10-15 acre patch of pasture/trees to expand slightly more on the back side and include a pond and creek on my property. Hoping to end up with approximately 30 acres total by the time I get out of school and start work full time as a nurse.
Pretty sure no one really is very worried about this, but since homesteading is a major method of surviving considering what's happening with the world, I figured I would post. If anyone has any questions...feel free to ask, I will do my best to answer.
